The spread of computer systems in all areas of life is continually advancing. Both the complexity of the individual computer systems, in particular of the available hardware, and the complexity of the applications running thereon and their dependences on one another are continuously increasing. At the same time, computer systems and their applications are being increasingly tailored to the needs of individual user groups.
On account of this general development, the development of graphical user interfaces in general and configuration interfaces in particular is taking up increasingly more development effort. The large amount of development effort when creating such interfaces simultaneously results in an increased requirement when testing the developed user interfaces using a multiplicity of test environments with different client systems and client applications, for example, web browsers and operating systems.
One example of a complex computer system comprising a plurality of complex hardware components and complex software components running thereon is the distributed, virtual tape library system for data backup from Fujitsu Technology Solutions GmbH sold under the name “Eternus CS” or “Eternus CS High End.” Like a multiplicity of other complex computer systems, the so-called “Eternus CS? system uses middleware used to manage and communicate with a multiplicity of hardware components by an application layer above it.
The middleware and the hardware components managed by the latter can be partially configured by a web-based graphical user interface (GUI). However, on account of the multiplicity of hardware and software components used and their configuration possibilities, it is currently virtually impossible to create a graphical user interface for all configurable parameters in a conventional manner. Complete adaptation of the web-based graphical user interface to all available configuration possibilities would excessively delay the further development of such complex systems and, as a result, would thus prevent expansion of the system with new hardware or software components.
Therefore, recourse is had to special configuration possibilities, for example, using a command line interface (CLI) to configure some parameters, in particular newly added or rarely used parameters. However, the practice of configuring parameters using a command line interface requires a large amount of experience of the user and is therefore not suitable for every user of the system.
It could therefore be helpful to provide a method of providing a user interface for computer systems, in particular for complex computer systems having a multiplicity of configuration possibilities and is suitable for a multiplicity of computer systems on the one hand, and for a multiplicity of client systems used by users, on the other hand.